


"Small & Red"

by DieroteRosine



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: #BkAkKrTkWeek2020, Alternate Universe - Bookstore, Bookstore Employee Tsukishima Kei, Day 1: Bookstore AU, Fluff, Kuroo Tetsurou is a Little Shit, M/M, Multi, Romance, Teasing, Tsukishima just wants to read in peace and quiet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:54:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27326872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DieroteRosine/pseuds/DieroteRosine
Summary: Actually, it could have been the perfect day for Tsukishima - as a bookstore employee, he was one of the first to read his favorite author's new book and only two pages separated him from the grand finale of the book series.If it weren't for the fact that suddenly three men needed his help in a search for a book that couldn't have been more generic."Small & red."
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou/Kuroo Tetsurou/Tsukishima Kei
Comments: 12
Kudos: 292
Collections: BokuAkaKuroTsuki Week 2020





	"Small & Red"

Tsukishima Kei stood with his back against the counter and flipped through a book. It was a Sequel of a previously quite successful crime series and Tsukishima had already been hooked with the first book. He hadn't missed any of the editions since then and as a bookstore employee it was easy for him to get the latest sequels straight away.

_The superintendent was running through an underground passage, on the heels of the kidnapper_ and Tsukishima's eyes literally flew over the pages. For minutes now the action had been steadily heading towards the grand finale and if he could believe the author's interviews, they would get a big surprise at the end of the book.

For this very reason, Tsukishima didn't even raise his head when he heard the doorbell - whoever came up with the idea of rummaging for a few books in his precious half hour before closing time, would surely be able to do it without his help. _The superintendent scurried around a corner, the man's shadow clear in her field of vision, and she raised the gun, pointed it at the man's head and -_

"Excuse me?"

Tsukishima winced when the voice suddenly tore him out of the intense scene and for a moment he just thought about pretending he hadn't heard the man. The book had only two more pages, how did he deserve that one of his customers demanded his attention _right now?!_

With a theatrical sigh, mourning the missed finale, Tsukishima lifted his eyes from the book and suppressed an annoyed snort when instead of one he was facing three men who were watching him carefully. The one who dared to disturb him, grinned, a hand on his hip and this fact alone _annoyed_ Tsukishima. How could the man grin like that when he had obviously screwed up what was probably the most exciting finale of mankind? It took Tsukishima two seconds to put on his typical "customer smile" and to examine the three men with frosty eyes.

"Yes please?" He asked coolly, his mouth twisted into a forced smile. "What can I do for you?"

The three men gave each other a quick look, which Tsukishima did not miss even if he deliberately decided to ignore it. Should these men think what they wanted of him, he wanted nothing more than to push them out of the shop and finally find out who was hiding behind the mask of the mysterious kidnapper. For three books things had come to a head, and _right now_ life required him to do his his job like a responsible adult.

Admitting defeat, Tsukishima sighed again and waited with a raised eyebrow for a valid reason why these men had the audacity to disturb him.

Mister "Smug Smile" scratched the back of his head and then nodded over to his two companions. "We were actually looking for a book."

Tsukishima blinked twice, the customer's smile wavering suspiciously, but he took a deep breath and remembered that he still had a lot of college debt to pay off and that he _needed_ this job.

So he kept smiling to himself and then said deliberately slowly.

“Well, that's good, you're in a bookstore. The chance of finding a book here is relatively high."

He couldn't completely suppress the slightly sour undertone from his voice and the smallest man in the group wrinkled his nose slightly, a smile on his face.

Unimpressed, the first man continued to grin at Tsukishima and ran a hand through his ridiculously disheveled hair.

"Could you maybe help us find this book?"

With a low sigh, Tsukishima slid from his place at the counter to their computer and opened the searching-program. As soon as he had either the author or the title of the book, he would know in no time where the title was in their shop. And then only a few minutes would separate him from the grand finale.

He raised his head and addressed the black-haired man.

"Of course, if you would tell me what the book is called, I can tell you where it is."

"Oh, that could be a problem." Tsukishima paused. If there was one sentence that you didn't want to hear as a seller, it was this one. With all the patience he could muster, he looked at the three men. "And why, if I may ask?"

Now the third man spoke. His voice boomed through the room and Tsukishima imperceptibly backed away a little, the continued existence of his eardrum a little more important than an injured ego of a customer.

“Unfortunately we don't know what it's called! And we don't know the author either. All I know is that it's _small and red_."

Somebody seemed to really hate Tsukishima because about 1/3 of all books in his shop were "small and red". Why the hell did all designers have to jump on this trend? Now Tsukishima had to pay for it. With all due calm he stared at the men in front of him and closed, without taking his eyes off them, with a theatrical click the program. The way from the PC to his place at the counter seemed to stretch forever and he thought for a moment whether he should just say that they should look for themselves. What were the chances that these customers in particular would complain to his boss?

While Tsukishima was still calculating the likelihood of this, the man with the black hair leaned over the counter, stretching himself into Tsukishima's personal space. A gesture that the blonde acknowledged with a warning look.

"So -"; the customer glanced at Tsukishima's nameplate, “ _Tsukishima_. I suppose you would like to help us _with pleasure_.” Ignoring Tsukishima's dead expression, he continued. "The book is a thriller and probably around five years old."

“Nah, I'd rather say ten. Or fifteen. What do you say 'kaashi?", The gray-haired man interrupted him immediately and “'kaashi" shrugged helplessly. _Great, absolutely fantastic._ There it went, Tsukishima's chance to finish reading the book within the next half hour. And to top it all off, the chances of finishing work on time diminished with every minute he spent looking for this stupid book.

A low snort formed in his throat and he was _so ready_ to let the three men know exactly what he thought of their information as he went through all the crime novels of the last ten, fifteen, twenty(?) years in his head and realized that he'd probably still be here in those _fifteen_ years if he didn't get some more information. Avoiding the lurking gaze of the black-haired, flashy guy, he clicked his tongue and propped both arms on the counter.

“Well, in the last fifteen years, around 5,000 detective novels have been published. And as you can probably imagine, I don't have every one of them in front of my eyes, so if you could think of something more, I would be grateful."

The three men were silent for a moment, then the shortest one spoke up.

“Well, I remember that the main character was a female commissioner. Does it help you?"

Tsukishima wanted to bang his head on the counter at full speed, because in 1/3 of all crime novels the main character was a female detective. He shrugged with a forced smile.

“Well, a little more information would be quite helpful. Do you really have no idea who wrote the book? Or who has published it?"

In response, the three men shook their heads in unison. Tsukishima squinted at his book with two fingers pressed against the bridge of his nose, the desire to simply march out of his own shop greater than ever.

"Okay so let's summarize - the book is a crime novel with a female commissioner as the main character and it was published about 5-15 years ago?"

He refrained from commenting on the probability of finding this book with the help of this absolutely pathetic description, even if he felt the vague urge to sweep the challenging grin off the face of the black-haired guy at his counter.

With one last look at the clock and a resigned click of his tongue, Tsukishima snaked out from behind the counter before trudging into the crime section under the curious gaze of the men. He would just try _very hard_ to find the book in five minutes and then decide he couldn't help these men. Surely no one could ask him to spend his valuable free time looking for a legendary book that he might not even have in his assortment.

He leaned down in front of one of the shelves, his eyes quickly scanned the spines of the books and just as he was about to get up again, it occurred to him simmering hot that some authors had their cover art changed over the years and that there was a _chance_ that the book meanwhile wasn't even red anymore.

This new realization caused his mood to drop again by another twenty points and he pressed two fingers against the bridge of his nose before he jerked around - and looked directly into two grinning faces and a slightly smirking face of the men, who all stood behind him, eyeing him above. Although much less him, but more than obviously his ass.

With a suppressed click of his tongue, Tsukishima scowled and straightened to full height so that he could now look down on them. Only now did he register that the men were barely shorter than him and that all of them looked like if they had just walked straight out of a sports advertisement. Or - in the case of the little black-haired man – out of the runway.

Three pairs of eyes fixed him in amusement when Tsukishima snorted and strutted to the next shelf without comment.

“I noticed -”, he stretched to take out a book, “it may as well be that the cover has been changed in recent years and we are now completely pointless looking through the store for a red book. I mean, of course _I love to help_ , but maybe you should try your luck somewhere else."

"Oh, we have time." Tsukishima paused, grimaced briefly when the men couldn't see him and then continued walking to different shelves and randomly pulling out books.

He had already given up on finding the right book after the first three shelves and so he started to vegetate while the three men followed him at every turn, always with a half serious, half amused expression on their faces. Somewhere between romantic thriller and crime comedy, Tsukishima forgot that these men were still customers and began grumbling under his breath and cursing every red book in hell, which brought him quiet snorts of the men at regular intervals.

Minutes passed without Tsukishima accomplishing anything other than him being able to find all the red books in his shop with his eyes closed, but that wasn't really something he was proud of.

His mood had meanwhile reached the lowest point of the day, not least because the three men behind him wouldn't stop throwing glances at his legs or his ass at every opportunity. Tsukishima swore that if he had to feel the seductive look of the tall black-haired man on his ass just _one more time_ , as soon as he bent down for a book, he would let that book fly. _In his damn grinning face_. And it would give him inner satisfaction.

Sighing, he thought about what was going to happen in the book - _would the inspector finally catch the kidnapper? What was the big secret behind the masks and how did the man manage to escape again and again?_ So many unanswered questions and Tsukishima had to climb through his shop instead, in search of Pandora's Box of Books. Or Schrodinger's book. Anyway, the loud ringing of the clock reminded the blonde that he had for thirty minutes now looked for something he wasn't even sure existed.

He had searched at least 300 books and was so close to declare the search as unsuccessful, when the gray-haired man suddenly made a startled noise.

“Oh.”

Another noise that salespeople didn't like to hear. Especially when it was combined with a _"hand over his mouth-move"_ , as the man did. Carefully Tsukishima turned around and asked in an emphatically friendly manner.

"What _oh_?"

The man looked visibly affected and tugged at his shirt until he mumbled: "I think the book was maybe not red but blue, actually."

With a muffled "Tschud" a book fell from Tsukishima's hands to the floor, but he didn't even gave it a second look.

"Bo, you told us earlier it was red, now poor Tsukishima had to search the whole store for nothing.", The tall, black-haired man etched, but not without having to visibly suppress a laugh.

Their third companion gave Tsukishima a pitying look and turned to him: “I'm sorry, Bokuto was so sure that it was red. Sorry for the inconvenience, you don't have to help us now any longer."

Tsukishima almost laughed hysterically at the thought of having to go through all the blue books, but he managed to get his face under control, giving them a tortured smile.

"Well, it's not his fault that he was wrong." His gaze slid along the hundreds of books he had piled up. "There were only three hundred individual books, it can happen to anyone."

"I'm really sorry.", The tall gray-haired man hung his head and suddenly looked like a wet puppy and for a tiny moment the word "cute" flitted through Tsukishima's head. Even if it immediately disappeared when he thought about what he had sacrificed for that one "cute" moment. His closing time, the finale of his book, and his sanity. Not a good rate for the gray-haired puppy man.

"'Kaashi" or whatever the name of the smallest man in the group was, carefully stepped closer and gave Tsukishima an encouraging smile.

"Tsukishima is surely not angry with you, Bokuto.", He said, still looking at the blonde. "But maybe we should apologize anyway."

"Oh, that's a very good idea.", The tall, black-haired man intervened and suddenly Tsukishima had the vague feeling that something was happening now, that had been planned for a long time.

The men added their ideas far too easily and he raised an eyebrow cautiously as Bokuto perked up from one second to the next and happily approached Tsukishima. “Kuroo and Akaashi are right! Since I'm responsible for everything, I should make it up to you somehow! Let me invite you to a coffee after your shift."

Now three pair of eyes looked questioningly at Tsukishima and the sheer audacity of the situation hit the blonde like a blow - not only had these men robbed him of his punctual end of work, with the search for a presumably non-existent book, _no_ , they only had all that done to be able to invite him for a coffee.

Because otherwise there would have been no other option. They couldn't just ask him like normal people would have, they staged a play in which, if Tsukishima refused, they would still go out without damage to their image. It was as stupid as it was brilliant and had it not been for Tsukishima's sanity, he would have enjoyed the whole situation with satisfaction.

But now it was him who faced these three men who had played him like an instrument. Tsukishima was impressed, even if he didn't like to admit it. However, this did not change the fact that they had disturbed him in what was probably the most important passage in the book and therefore there was only one correct answer to Bokuto's question.

"No thanks." Tsukishima replied dryly and didn't even bother to sound apologetic.

From Kuroo's amused smile, he realized that they hadn't expected anything else. The man sighed theatrically and shrugged before turning to Bokuto and Akaashi.

“Well, there is nothing we can do about that. We would have loved to make up for your wasted time. But if you don't want to be spoiled by the three of us, we'll have to give up."

Tsukishima's mouth twitched slightly upwards at the thought of what Kuroo could mean by "spoiling", but then he remembered that in a few minutes a book was waiting for him, which wanted to be read and he blurred the thought. For a moment the three looked at him with challenging eyes, then Akaashi broke the silence and cleared his throat.

“Well then, it's a shame that you are not coming with us, Tsukishima. But I think you have other things to do now.” With a small smile he added. "Maybe next time."

Tsukishima doubted that very much, he had no intention of seeing these men again so soon when their visits always meant such a mess. So he just shrugged his shoulders and accompanied them to the door, where each of them said goodbye with a smile and a nod. Tsukishima's inner peace was imminent when the door slowly closed behind the men and the blonde hurried back to his book.

But just as the door closed with a rush, Kuroo's voice reached his ear and Tsukishima stood still. The mouth agape and not able to realize what just had happened.

_"Do you think he has already reached the point when the kidnapper turns out to be the inspector's father?"_

Well, to say that Tsukishima Kei angrily sorted through all of the red books that afternoon, staring at each of them with disgust would be an understatement.

All that remains to be said is that after this incident, Tsukishima didn't speak to the men, who now visited his store every day, for three weeks. After these three weeks, he finally went with them to his promised coffee.

But only on the condition that none of them would ever spoil one of his books for him again.

And when the author published a prequel for her crime series two years later, Tsukishima sat with the book on his couch, cuddled up to Akaashi while Bokuto and Kuroo prepared the food in their shared kitchen and neither of them dared to speak to their blonde boyfriend, until he finished the book.


End file.
